Ring Tones

If you want to be a safe driver, don’t get a fancy ring tone for your cell phone. A new study shows that just the ring of a cell phone may be as distracting as talking on the phone while driving, especially if it’s a familiar song.

Perhaps most surprising, the study found that unexpected exposure to snippets of a popular song, such as those often used as ringtones, can have an even-longer-lasting negative impact on attention. Researcher Jill Shelton says, “In any setting where people are trying to acquire knowledge and trying to retain that information in some way, a distraction that may just seem like a common annoyance to people may have a really disruptive effect on their later retention of that information.” In other words, you should turn off your cell in the classroom, just like you do at the movies. While high school classrooms invariably tell students to do this, many cells make be left on in large auditoriums where college lectures are held.

If you put your phone on the “vibrate” mode, it won’t distract others nearby, but it MAY be just as distracting when you’re driving. This is something that needs further research.

We hope everyone will turn off their cell phones when they listen to the incredible speakers we have lined up for our Dreamland Festival in June. Anne and Whitley, psychic medium Marla Frees, science reporter Linda Moulton Howe, that good ol’ Texan Jim Marrs and the amazing William Henry will all be there. Tickets are selling out fast, so be sure to get yours today! And be sure to subscribe today because you’ll get lots of great benefits!

Art credit: Dreamstime.com

NOTE: This news story, previously published on our old site, will have any links removed.